This thesis examines the trope of anthropology in the Canadian poet Anne Carson's work. This trope functions as an extended metaphor to describe the study of cultures, texts, and the "alien countries" of other human souls. Anne Carson rejects anthropological practices that aim at the "invasion" of the other, and associates such practices with the actions of seeing, projecting and even "devouring." Instead she favours anthropological approaches that foster mutual "encounters", such approaches being typically charged with the actions of listening, absorbing and breathing. This distinction becomes crucial when we consider its implications for reading and writing about Anne Carson's work. Can a reader encounter rather than invade a poem? What meaning can the reader find in such an encounter if, unlike the practice of anthropology, it is undertaken in written form and in isolation? Might we conclude that all responses to poetry emerge not from the fullness and immediacy of an encounter, but precisely from the impossibility of ever undergoing the experience of such an encounter?
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.37541 |
| Date | January 1998 |
| Creators | Poutanen, Minna J. |
| Contributors | Cooke, Nathalie (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Arts (Department of English.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001641660, proquestno: MQ43936, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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